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Crushed
Win a free print copy of this book!
0 days and 06:10:12
20 copies available
U.S. only
A heartfelt middle grade story about changing friendships, peer pressure, and the courage to speak up when lines are crossed, perfect for fans of Starfish and The Benefits of Being an Octopus. Sophie Valentine would rather be at home, doing school virtually. Instead, she’s waiting in a crowded middle school building for her best friend, Eve, who’s finally back after an extended absence, which only Sophie knows the truth about. But when Eve returns, things aren’t the same. First, Eve stops walking to school with her in the morning. Then, she’s ditching Sophie to hang out with the Crash Crew, a group of popular kids notorious for their social media dares. Eve seems to fit right in, but Sophie is Did she just lose her best friend? When rumors surface that Eve is hiding a painful secret she didn’t share with Sophie, Sophie is spurred on an investigation to discover what—or who—caused the incident behind Eve’s sudden change...and why all clues lead back to the Crash Crew. Using lessons from her forensics class and the help of a new friend, Sophie will have to uncover the truth before more harm is done.
240 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 16, 2024
About the author
Melanie Conklin
6 books219 followersMelanie Conklin is the author of Counting Thyme, Every Missing Piece, and A Perfect Mistake. Melanie grew up in North Carolina and worked as a product designer before she began her writing career. When she’s not writing, Melanie spends her time doodling and dreaming up new ways to be creative. She lives in New Jersey with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 17, 2024
I’m so happy I waited for the weekend to read this one because I got to spend a good chunk of Saturday with this story. Melanie Conklin’s words flow beautifully in a way that keeps you turning the pages. Once I start reading one of her stories, I don’t want to step away from the characters and their experiences. The topics she writes about and the way she writes them will help readers young and old make sense of the world. Her words also hold onto hope and continuously inspire better.
This book in particular examines friendship struggles, anxiety, inappropriate touch and comments, social media pitfalls, and more… in an intriguing, satisfying and important way. This book will both entertain and be of great help to many readers. As with other books I’ve read by this author, it is incredibly well done and creates a space for rich discussions as well as for mindfulness regarding others and our actions and words.
May 5, 2024
Who hasn’t felt “crushed” at one time or another? For Sophie, feeling crushed means crowds, changing friendships, unwelcome contact with a boy who gets to up close and personal, the fall out from misused dares shared on social media and panic attacks she does not know how to stop. Melanie Conklin (Every Missing Piece, A Perfect Mistake) tackles so many very real battles being faced by young people every day and in each situation, she models ways to find help-a therapist, a grandmother, new friends, parents, a caring school nurse. The book moves quickly and its realistic plot and strong characterization should keep readers engaged while they, hopefully, see some wisdom they can use in their own lives. Representation: Race of main characters is unclear, but two players in the story select they/them pronouns or use ones different than those assigned at birth. Important issues tackled in this one targeted at grades 5-8.
March 19, 2024
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Sophie Valentine lives in New York City, where her father and grandmother run a book store and her mother is a doctor. She and her best friend, Eve, attend MS477, a magnet school, but Eve has been absent since Thanksgiving without much of an explanation, only that she may have tried to hurt herself. Coming back after winter break is difficult, especially when Eve doesn't meet her at their usual spot. Eve has spent a lot of time with the "Crash Crew", a group of students who do ill advised YouTube challenges, and Sophie suspects that this, along with her crush on the obnoxious Chaz, had something to do with her absence. When Sophie has a panic attack in the hallway, one of the Crew posts it to social media, and she is mortified. She's had panic attacks before, but doesn't want to tell anyone. Away from school, there is some stress as the bookstore needs some renovations that are hard to afford on the heels of the pandemic. One of the fire code violations that needs to be addressed is changing the "wall of love" where people can leave notes; it's because of this wall that Sophie's grandparents met, so her grandmother is very protective of it. When Sophie sees Eve participating in other challenges, like climbing milk cartons behind a store, she alerts the school when Eve gets hurt, and Eve is furious. This further strains their relationship, although Sophie does find an ally in Stewart, a girl in her gym class who used to be part of the Crew but now thinks they are jerks. She is very helpful to Sophie when she has a panic attack. Sophie's class is doing a mock murder investigation, and Sophie starts using the techniques from class to try to figure out what is going on with Eve. There turns out to be a lot, and when a lot of harassment is uncovered, Eve finally has to go to her mother and gradnmother for advice. Will she and some of the other girls who are tired of the boorish behavior of Chaz and the Crew be able to change the school culture?
Strengths: Conklin has a trigger warning for harassment and self harm at the beginning, which is helpful. Like Dee's Maybe He Just Likes You, this is an interesting look at how middle school students try to deal with their own problems, and are often unable to do so without some help. Sophie's panic attacks, which started during the pandemic, are realistically portrayed, and are something that we see more and more in schools. The fact that Eve and Sophie's individual problems are causing rifts in their friendship is true to life, but it was good to see Sophie make a new friend in Stewart. The bookstore was delightful, and Gram was a well developed character. She was a good mix of not wanting to change (she takes years to clean out the closet of her deceased husband) and being able to help Sophie navigate current issues. The mother is also a good character, and I love the matter of fact way she deals with Sophie's problems. Young readers will relate to the Crash Crew, and hopefully be appalled at the amount of damages caused by YouTube stunts in the school. Only time will tell whether or not these stunts will ever seem dated.
Weaknesses: There seems to be a cultural shift in the way girls are taught to deal with harassment that I just can't figure out. My mother, born in 1934, taught me to never put up with any nonsense, and there was a lot of it. (Just watch the television show from 1978, On Our Own, for a good lesson in casual, daily sexual harassment, complete with inappropriate jokes.) I passed this on to my own daughters. Since today's mothers were raised when there was less of this, do today's girls not get this lesson delivered as often as it once was? Or is it the effects of social media that are making this (and everything) worse?
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed New York City based problem novels like Mackler's Not If I Can Help It or Stead's Goodbye, Stranger.
Sophie Valentine lives in New York City, where her father and grandmother run a book store and her mother is a doctor. She and her best friend, Eve, attend MS477, a magnet school, but Eve has been absent since Thanksgiving without much of an explanation, only that she may have tried to hurt herself. Coming back after winter break is difficult, especially when Eve doesn't meet her at their usual spot. Eve has spent a lot of time with the "Crash Crew", a group of students who do ill advised YouTube challenges, and Sophie suspects that this, along with her crush on the obnoxious Chaz, had something to do with her absence. When Sophie has a panic attack in the hallway, one of the Crew posts it to social media, and she is mortified. She's had panic attacks before, but doesn't want to tell anyone. Away from school, there is some stress as the bookstore needs some renovations that are hard to afford on the heels of the pandemic. One of the fire code violations that needs to be addressed is changing the "wall of love" where people can leave notes; it's because of this wall that Sophie's grandparents met, so her grandmother is very protective of it. When Sophie sees Eve participating in other challenges, like climbing milk cartons behind a store, she alerts the school when Eve gets hurt, and Eve is furious. This further strains their relationship, although Sophie does find an ally in Stewart, a girl in her gym class who used to be part of the Crew but now thinks they are jerks. She is very helpful to Sophie when she has a panic attack. Sophie's class is doing a mock murder investigation, and Sophie starts using the techniques from class to try to figure out what is going on with Eve. There turns out to be a lot, and when a lot of harassment is uncovered, Eve finally has to go to her mother and gradnmother for advice. Will she and some of the other girls who are tired of the boorish behavior of Chaz and the Crew be able to change the school culture?
Strengths: Conklin has a trigger warning for harassment and self harm at the beginning, which is helpful. Like Dee's Maybe He Just Likes You, this is an interesting look at how middle school students try to deal with their own problems, and are often unable to do so without some help. Sophie's panic attacks, which started during the pandemic, are realistically portrayed, and are something that we see more and more in schools. The fact that Eve and Sophie's individual problems are causing rifts in their friendship is true to life, but it was good to see Sophie make a new friend in Stewart. The bookstore was delightful, and Gram was a well developed character. She was a good mix of not wanting to change (she takes years to clean out the closet of her deceased husband) and being able to help Sophie navigate current issues. The mother is also a good character, and I love the matter of fact way she deals with Sophie's problems. Young readers will relate to the Crash Crew, and hopefully be appalled at the amount of damages caused by YouTube stunts in the school. Only time will tell whether or not these stunts will ever seem dated.
Weaknesses: There seems to be a cultural shift in the way girls are taught to deal with harassment that I just can't figure out. My mother, born in 1934, taught me to never put up with any nonsense, and there was a lot of it. (Just watch the television show from 1978, On Our Own, for a good lesson in casual, daily sexual harassment, complete with inappropriate jokes.) I passed this on to my own daughters. Since today's mothers were raised when there was less of this, do today's girls not get this lesson delivered as often as it once was? Or is it the effects of social media that are making this (and everything) worse?
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed New York City based problem novels like Mackler's Not If I Can Help It or Stead's Goodbye, Stranger.
April 12, 2024
What an important book to have in classrooms! Peer pressure, anxiety & panic attacks, losing a best friend to another group of kids, having the courage to speak up… so many conversations to be had! Main character Sophie is dealing with very realistic middle school age issues. She is one of the lucky ones that gets to see a therapist to help her talk through her anxiety and come up with strategies to curb them. I love that readers get to witness what her sessions are like and learn some coping strategies. What a wonderful book to have in classrooms and libraries!
April 11, 2024
Author Melanie Conklin has done it again! I especially loved the theme of changing friendships in middle school. I remember how hard that was!
March 31, 2024
Thank you to the author and publisher for sharing an early copy with #bookexpedition.
Sophie prefers being in comfortable places, like home or in the bookshop her family owns. Middle school can be too loud and too crowded for Sophie to feel like herself. Plus, her best friend Eve has been on an extended absence from school, leaving Sophie to dodge questions about her whereabouts. But when Eve returns, Sophie’s excitement to have her friend back quickly turns to hurt and disappointment as Eve finds a new group to hang with.
I loved how there was a great cast of supporting characters and one page snippets from their points of view. With themes of friendship, social media pressures, setting boundaries, and normalizing therapy and anxiety strategies, this is a middle grade read that I think should be in all middle school libraries and classrooms. Publishing on July 16, 2024.
Sophie prefers being in comfortable places, like home or in the bookshop her family owns. Middle school can be too loud and too crowded for Sophie to feel like herself. Plus, her best friend Eve has been on an extended absence from school, leaving Sophie to dodge questions about her whereabouts. But when Eve returns, Sophie’s excitement to have her friend back quickly turns to hurt and disappointment as Eve finds a new group to hang with.
I loved how there was a great cast of supporting characters and one page snippets from their points of view. With themes of friendship, social media pressures, setting boundaries, and normalizing therapy and anxiety strategies, this is a middle grade read that I think should be in all middle school libraries and classrooms. Publishing on July 16, 2024.
April 29, 2024
EARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
This is a timely book for middle grade readers as the use of social media for online bullying impacts so many people. Sophie’s situation is one that readers will relate to and learn from.
This is a timely book for middle grade readers as the use of social media for online bullying impacts so many people. Sophie’s situation is one that readers will relate to and learn from.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews